Answers to Some Objections

Question

Reply (1). No. 2: Yazid laid claim to the caliphate (3), and Hazrat Mu‘awiya ﵁ made him his heir apparent (wali ‘ahd) during his own lifetime, and the majority accepted this and gave him the oath of allegiance (bay‘ah). What reason was there, then, for Imam Husayn ﵁ to hold that he was not entitled to the caliphate (4), when his caliphate had already been established, he had gained power, and the kingship had already come to him?

Answer

(1) Fatwas are for the unacquainted and the ignorant; what need is there for people of knowledge, before whom every kind of textual proof (nusus) is available, to inquire of someone and then object to the answer? From your letter it appears that some great wrestler has stood up in the arena, raising the cry “is there any challenger?

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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